Upcoming Highlights: Printed & Manuscript Americana—At Auction September 30, 2021



Lot 28: St. John Honeywood, Battles of Lexington and Concord, after the famous engravings by Doolittle, four ink and watercolor drawings, circa 1778. Estimate $50,000 to $75,000.

About the Auction

Manuscript diaries are a specialty of the house, and the best one in this sale is by a Connecticut Revolutionary War officer who was imprisoned by the British in an infamous Manhattan sugarhouse in 1777. Another important item from the Revolutionary era is the 1774 Boston Tea Party mezzotint, Bostonian’s Paying the Excise Man, or Tarring & Feathering. The western frontier is very well represented in this sale, led by an 1869 Arizona scouting manuscript by a lieutenant who later died with his brother-in-law, Custer, at Little Bighorn; an archive of the prominent Cherokee merchant Joshua Ross; and a Camillus Fly photograph of a boy captured by the Apaches. Other strong sections include American children’s chapbooks, material related to early Manhattan, and the Civil War. Latin American material includes a beautiful 1646 first edition of Alonso de Ovalle’s Historica relacion del reyno de Chile, as well as early Mexican printing and interesting Cuban material.

Related Reading: The Value of Manuscript Journals


Lot 303: Juana Inés de la Cruz, complete set of her collected works, Madrid & Barcelona, 1689, 1693, 1701. Estimate $80,000 to $120,000.
Lot 55: Archive of the prominent mail art practitioner Stu Horn, circa 1973-1980s. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Lot 58: William Price, set of contact sheets showing Route 40 by air from Atlantic City to San Francisco, with his Keystone Aircraft-Type F8 camera, 1951-56. Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.


Collector’s Sections of Note

American Indians

Lots 2 to 24

American Revolution

Lots 25 to 50

Children’s Books

Lots 72 to 80

Civil War

Lots 81 to 115

New York

Lots 183 to 197

Presidential Americana

Lots 206 to 214

The Western American Frontier

Lots 248 to 280

Latin Americana

Lots 293 to 349


Lot 118: Bound volume of the Pennsylvania Herald, featuring very early printing of the US Constitution, Philadelphia, 1787-91. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.
Lot 33: Diary of a Connecticut officer imprisoned in the infamous Manhattan sugarhouse, 1776-81. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

Related Reading: The Value of Manuscript Journals


What You Need to Know on Auction Day

This auction will be held live and conducted remotely.

There will not be bidding in the room, though we accept order bids, and interested buyers will be able to participate live via the Swann Galleries App. The app is available in the App Store and on Google Play, which can also be accessed on a desktop at live.swanngalleries.com.

Please note: phone bidding registrations will close the day before the sale at 4pm. 

At this time, our exhibition and auction location at 104 East 25th Street is closed to the public. Private viewings are available by appointment, and are encouraged to be arranged in advance. To make an appointment please contact the specialist.


Specialist

Rick Stattler

Director, Printed & Manuscript Americana


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